GCSE Business studiesUnit 7 – MarketingMr Goodacre

Worksheet: Fizz & Burp drinks co. – Product portfolio analysis

The Fizz & burp drinks co. have been reviewing their product range. They have conducted some research on their products and have asked you, as a marketing expert, to do some analysis for them.

FaB Cola: Has been the company’s best selling product since its launch. It currently has a 52% share of the UK cola market, which has been roughly the same for the past five years.

FaB Energizer:Is the company’s energy drink that was launched two years ago. The company admits it was a bit ‘slow off the mark’ to introduce a drink into the energy drink market. This may be the reason why sales have been modest, despite an expensive launch campaign. FaB energizer currently has 2% of rapidly expanding UK energy drinks market.

FaB Milkaide: This is a drink the company has been selling for nearly four years. They tried to be innovative and ahead of the field by launching FaB Milkaide, a fruit flavoured fizzy milk drink. However sales have been low since its launch and at present the product is running at a loss.

FaB Currant Coola:Is a new product launched in June. It is a still blackcurrant drink that can either be drunk straight out of the fridge or frozen and eaten as an ice-lolly. The idea came from a German company who launched a similar product in Europe last summer. However by Christmas the German company had gone out of business as the product only sold during the summer months.

Schweppes and Lucozade have similar produces in their product portfolio, however due to large marketing campaign FaB Currant Coola is at present market leader with roughly 67% of the drink-lolly market.

Questions

1. What does BCG stand for?

2. What does PLC stand for?

3. Draw a BCG and place each of FaB’s products on the matrix. Under the matrix write an explanation justifying why your placement of the products.

4. Draw a PLC plotting all the products on the graph. Under the graphwrite an explanation justifying why your placement of the products.

5. Can you suggest an extension strategy FaB could use for Milkaide

6. Robin Banks, founder of the Fizz & Burp drinks co. is still keen to trim down the company’s portfolio of products by cutting some from the range. Can you draft a memo to Robin explaining the benefits of having a wide range of products.

Extension task

Use the internet to help you answer the following questions:

  1. Find out which company makes Kit Kat and list the other products it produces.
  2. Why does it produce a range of products?
  3. Has the firm used extension strategies to extend the life of the product over the years?

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